English & Literacy
The Australian Curriculum: English guides teachers at Maribyrnong Primary School. It aims to ensure that students:
- learn to listen to, read, view, speak, write, create and reflect on increasingly complex and sophisticated spoken, written and multimodal texts across a growing range of contexts with accuracy, fluency and purpose
- appreciate, enjoy and use the English language in all its variations and develop a sense of its richness and power to evoke feelings, convey information, form ideas, facilitate interaction with others, entertain, persuade and argue
- understand how Standard Australian English works in its spoken and written forms and in combination with non-linguistic forms of communication to create meaning
- develop interest and skills in inquiring into the aesthetic aspects of texts, and develop an informed appreciation of literature.
The Balanced Literacy Program underpins all teaching approaches at Maribyrnong Primary School. This program ensures that students receive high levels of scaffolding in initial instruction and modelling to less support as they approach mastery. The cyclical nature of learning ensures that all students move along this developmental continuum.
Maribyrnong Primary School implements BEE Spelling using Words their Way texts to assist students in developing effective spelling strategies. BEE Spelling is a teacher-directed, student-centred approach to vocabulary growth and spelling development whereby students engage in a variety of sound, pattern and meaning activities, sorting pictures and words. It caters for differentiated learning in the classroom. This approach coupled with a focus on high frequency words ensures that students have a firm understanding of spelling features.
Teachers use First Steps to inform their practice in reading and writing. First Steps is a research-based literacy resource that offers teachers an accurate means of assessing and monitoring children's competencies and progress in reading, writing, speaking and listening and viewing. This resource, and our approach, symbolises the interrelated nature of literacy learning. We also use Writer's Notebook as a strategy to support and engage students in their writing. The opportunity for students to craft writing based on their interests supports the notion that the best ideas are living inside you. The challenge of all writers is to discover them.
For more information about the English content taught and sample portfolios at each year level, please see the Australian Curriculum Content Descriptions.